Navigating Tariff Turbulence in the Electronic Manufacturing Services Sector

Agility Tech Supports EMS Customers Through Proactive Supply Chain Methodology

U.S.-based OEMs and the global electronics manufacturing services (EMS) sector currently face unprecedented challenges from geopolitical instability, escalating/fluctuating tariffs, and a volatile global trade environment.

The current tariffs situation has complicated otherwise routine and long-established trade with U.S.-based companies, disrupting supply chains across the country and globally, causing shortages and inflated costs on materials, electronic components, sub-assemblies, and fully assembled products.

For EMS providers and their OEM customers, this volatility and uncertainty is impeding operational decisions, and threatening revenue, profit margins, deliveries, new product development, time-to-market, production scalability, global market competitiveness, and even business viability for some.

Here are a few examples of the challenges and realities that U.S.-based OEMs and manufacturers now face to establish new or seek alternate manufacturing locations/channels:

• Rapidly escalating tangible and intangible costs of establishing alternate manufacturing operations and channels
• Cost, time, and efforts associated with the establishment of internal teams to research viable options
• Local and state permitting for building new plants
• Capital expenditures to purchase required equipment
• Capital expenditures for required re-tooling (injection mold tooling, die cast tooling, crimp dies, stamping dies, jigs & fixtures, test equipment, etc.)
• Seeking, hiring and training direct and indirect personnel—amidst a growing labor shortage—and increased HR responsibilities and management, thereof
• Costs of operational requisites such as:
  • Establishing, qualifying, and maintaining quality management systems (QMS): ISO 9001, ISO 13485, etc.
  • IPC-610 & -620/J-STD—001 training and certification
  • Certified IPC on-site specialists and trainers
  • UL/CSA training and certification
  • Development and support of viable supply chains (KPIs/ metrics/collecting & analyzing data, conducting ongoing supplier reviews, etc.)
• Escalating costs of employee health insurance, workmen’s comp, payroll, etc.
• Potential impacts of unions
• Substantially diminished revenue and profits, and challenges competing in the global marketplace—induced by recent tariffs
  
  

Even if a company is successful in overcoming these obstacles (cost, time, and logistically prohibitive for some), the reality is that many of the materials and electronic components required to produce their products will still likely be manufactured outside the U.S., at least for the foreseeable future, subjecting them to the unprecedented challenges of geopolitical instability, escalating/fluctuating tariffs, a volatile global trade environment, runaway costs, and therefore, an inevitable inability to maintain competitiveness in the global marketplace. It may therefore appear to be an insurmountable and fruitless undertaking. 

Infrastructure Foresight with Established Manufacturing Operations        

However, Agility Tech has emerged as a leader in managing tariff impacts and navigating the current global trade volatility through foresight-driven strategies, leveraging its vertically integrated global footprint, comprehensive and agile manufacturing model, and deep long-established supplier partnerships spanning the U.S., Mexico, and off-shore operations—well before the current geopolitical instability influenced current markets. By combining our regionalized and synergistic production hubs, vertical integration, advanced automation, QMS excellence, logistics supervision, and proactive risk management methodology, Agility Tech empowers its customers to take control over their supply chains, optimize costs, and maintain operational resilience and excellence in an otherwise unpredictable trade environment, ultimately safeguarding your success.

Managing Geographic Diversification & Multi-Site Manufacturing Footprint with Agility

Unlike manufacturers limited to a single plant or region, Agility Tech offers multiple synergistic manufacturing operations across strategic regions (U.S., Mexico, and off-shore), with the same requisite certifications, core competencies, and capabilities. This structure allows us to provide our customers with essential manufacturing, engineering, tooling, global supply chain, scalability, and logistics options, leveraging the regions with the most favorable tariff conditions, trade agreements between cooperating countries, and logistics as circumstances dictate. Agility Tech offers its customers essential flexibility and options—quickly adapting to sudden trade and policy disruptions—maintaining competitiveness and supply continuity for all stakeholders.

According to Deloitte, “Companies with an international production footprint can shift production to established facilities and gain market share during tariff volatility, while those without this flexibility often struggle to absorb added costs. This agility helps clients avoid sudden cost increases that would otherwise erode profit margins—a sound strategy highlighted as essential for manufacturers facing significant tariff impacts on materials and finished goods.”

Onshoring & Nearshoring Optimism

If manufacturing onshoring and nearshoring is a mandate for your company, or if you are considering manufacturing onshoring or nearshoring, our U.S. operations can effectively and efficiently support these initiatives while minimizing cost impacts through inter-operational coordination, utilizing our extensive geographic diversification and multi-site manufacturing presence and extensive global supply chain infrastructure to effectuate competitive advantage for our customers. Our manufacturing capabilities in these strategic regions provide cost efficiency and geographic risk management.     

Agility Tech’s multi-pronged manufacturing and sourcing approach mitigates risk, while ensuring continuity for its customers—safeguarding your success, even during these volatile times:

• Regionalized Manufacturing Hubs (U.S. & Mexico Facilities): With state-of-the-art North American facilities in New England and Nogales, Mexico, we can leverage the USMCA trade agreement for goods moving between North American partners.
• Global Vertical Integration: Our vertically integrated overseas facilities located in tariff-advantaged regions (e.g., Southeast Asia) provide alternate sourcing options, allowing us to manufacture and/or source components in this strategic region when advantageous to do so.

Supply Chain Agility, Proactive Management & Scenario Planning

Agility Tech builds resilience and flexibility through a globally diversified supplier network, enabling rapid pivots in sourcing and manufacturing strategies as tariffs and trade policies shift—leveraging our vertical integration, multi-sourcing, strategic onshoring, and flexible supplier agreements. Agility Tech employs a dynamic, tech-driven strategy: real-time monitoring of global trade developments; flexible production, sourcing, logistics, and fulfillment platforms—allowing swift recalibration of supply chains to optimize time-to-market, costs, and continuity. This agility—paired with scenario planning and financial modeling—empowers our customers to anticipate tariff impacts, mitigate risks, and avoid production delays and cost overruns. In today’s volatile trade landscape, such proactive adaptability is no longer optional, it is essential for safeguarding competitiveness, protecting profitability and success, transforming Agility Tech’s approach into both a survival strategy and a competitive advantage.

Supplier Network Resilience

• Diversified Global Sourcing: Agility Tech’s vast global manufacturing presence spans the U.S., Mexico, and Asia, with hundreds of supply chain partners located around the world. This strategic global alignment eliminates overreliance on any single region, while providing access to critical components, even during geopolitical, trade, and tariff-induced disruptions.
• Inventory Management: Our approach to replenishment and strategic safety stock procurement of high-risk components, augmented by our expert support identifying alternate components to buffer against sudden tariff-induced shortages and obsolescence/EOL concerns mitigates risk.

Engineered Solutions That Optimize Overall Value

Agility Tech’s engineering teams can assist with the design/re-design of products and the identification of alternative components in an effort to qualify for lower tariff and duty classifications—yet another tool on our belt that we can deploy in a concerted effort to ensure your success. These activities, in conjunction with optimizing sourcing and manufacturing strategies, can help minimize tariff exposure without compromising functionality, quality, or time-to-market.

Optimizing Harmonized Codes

Customs Optimization: We assist our customers with choosing the classifications of imported goods, using the most appropriate and favorable Harmonized Schedule (HS) codes in an effort to minimize tariffs and duties. We also utilize free trade zones (FTZs), where appropriate, to optimize our supply chains, manage inventory, and minimize exposure to our customers.

Strengthening Your Bottom Line

Agility Tech’s customer-centric strategies are designed to directly enhance your profitability and operational stability, even in today’s challenging economic and global trade environment. By combining proactive cost management, efficiency gains/accelerated production cycles, and advanced risk mitigation tools, Agility Tech empowers clients to control costs, accelerate time-to-market, and safeguard against supply chain disruptions—delivering measurable value where it matters most.

Agility Tech’s strategies directly enhance our customers’ profitability and stability:

Cost Stability

• Tariff Mitigation: Agility Tech’s long-term strategic supplier contracts, bulk purchasing, and leverage assist in negotiating competitive pricing and terms for critical components.
• Duty Drawback Recovery: Agility Tech assists its U.S.-based customers with reclaiming the maximum allowable customs duties, taxes and fees paid on imported goods that are subsequently exported, destroyed or used in the subsequent manufacture of exported goods, which helps U.S. companies maintain their competitiveness in the global marketplace.

Faster Time-to-Market

• NPI Acceleration: Our North America and off-shore operations are highly responsive; we work closely with our customers and coordinate your projects to accelerate time-to-market. Prototyping and production occur in the same production facilities, ensuring required continuity.
• Localized Support: We provide expert engineering collaboration and rapid design iterations, avoiding delays and communication gaps.

Turning Tariff Challenges into Your Strategic Advantage
While no company can fully evade tariff impacts, Agility Tech’s regionalized production, supply chain diversification, and engineering-led cost optimization equip our customers to take control over their sourcing initiatives. By preemptively addressing risks and embedding flexibility into each process, Agility Tech ensures that its customers not only survive tariff turbulence—they emerge with a competitive advantage. In an era where supply chain agility defines market leadership, Agility Tech’s model sets the standard for resilience in the EMS sector.

As our name suggests, we guide you through today’s challenging global outsourcing terrain and execute on your projects with agility—anticipating and managing change and obstacles with preemptive sensibility, swiftly launching contingencies as needed to safeguard your success. Contact us today to discuss your EMS requirements. We have vast capabilities and can efficiently meet your needs.

Agility Tech—Where Challenges Become Solutions